Written by "America's only professor of art crime," Erin Thompson, Possession is
a book fascinated by collectors of antiquities: the lengths they go to,
the justifications they give, the personas they shape and the politics
in their wake. But it's also a book that understands that the
relationship between art and collector runs deeper than prestige or
pride. When all of antiquity is a heist, you are what you steal [...] passion is still held accountable to posterity, and Thompson's
no-nonsense prose doesn't let anyone off the hook. (Chapter 8 is titled
without fanfare: "Collectors' Failed Justifications for Looting and
Smuggling.") And though Possession's account of black markets,
bribery and international demand for national works is a little
bare-bones, it also concisely lays out a web of personal and political
motives that's as complex as it is untenable.

I'll see if I can get hold of a copy. There will probably be some explanation for the origins and original significance of some of the 'traditional' deceiving mantras of the collecting and dealing world today in it.

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About Me

British archaeologist living and working in Warsaw, Poland. Since the early 1990s (or even longer) a primary interest has been research on artefact hunting and collecting and the market in portable antiquities in the international context and their effect on the archaeological record.

Abbreviations used in this blog

"coiney" - a term I use for private collector of dug up ancient coins, particularly a member of the Moneta-L forum or the ACCG

"heap-of-artefacts-on-a-table-collecting" the term rather speaks for itself, an accumulation of loose artefacts with no attempt to link each item with documented origins. Most often used to refer to metal detectorists (ice-cream tubs-full) and ancient coin collectors (Roman coins sold in aggregated bulk lots)